Day 21 - Roseberry Topping

Distance walked: 24.5km, Actual Time Taken: 6h 15m, Estimated Time Taken: 5h 15m
Ascent: 783m, Descent: 940m, # Times Lost: 0
G&T: Cleveland Way The Lemon One (You Can Drink It), Beer: 1/2 pint Doom Bar (You Can Drink It)

 

The actual time taken is significantly longer than I expected as the official route ended at the 22km mark.  The route notes failed to take into account the need to climb up Roseberry Topping and then the extremely steep descent down the other side to the village of Newton under Roseberry where I spent the night.  Below is a picture of the easy ascent up to the top of Roseberry Topping.  This is the one where you only had to climb 100m or so.  I took this picture from the point where I turned off the Cleveland Way to take the detour up Roseberry Topping.

The views from the top are spectacular but I didn't spend much time checking it out as by the time I got there I was done.  I just wanted to get to my hotel and put my feet up.  There were quite a few people at the summit, chatting and admiring the view. I have to confess I just accosted the nearest person and demanded they show me where the path down the other side started.  Not my finest hour.  Below is a picture from the top of the village of Newton under Roseberry where my hotel, the King's Head Inn, was.  It was a long way down.

The weather today was varied, as was the terrain.  The walk started with one of the hotel staff driving me back up to the top of Clay Bank.  Always pleasing to start well above sea level.  The walk today was again along the moors, mostly following the edge of the escarpment.  This meant it was very windy.  It started off also drizzling.  I was well covered in GoreTex but still the wind meant any rain hitting exposed skin felt like needles.  After about half an hour the rain stopped and the wind became a tail wind.  I thought this is not so bad.  They did say it would clear by lunchtime.  Well, they were right, and it wasn't lunchtime yet.  After about another 30 minutes the wind picked up and it started raining hard.  I began to wonder why I was paying for the privilege of doing this.  However, the rain did stop by lunchtime, but not the wind.  On the plus side that meant I dried out so when I finished the walk I wasn't even mildly damp.

In the afternoon, the wind died down (a bit) and most of the clouds cleared away. I even managed to spot this weird yellow thing in the sky a few times.  I also saw quite a few walkers in the afternoon but none in the morning.  They had more sense than me.  Although I did see a walker at breakfast this morning who had also been at the Queen Catherine in Osmotherley.  He got his lift up to Clay Bank after me and I didn't see him again.  I think he must have been walking the Coast to Coast path.  It overlaps with the Cleveland Way at Osmotherley but turns off before Roseberry Topping.

Today was quite a long day but my option was to do 2 longish days or one short day and one really long day the next.  I opted for 2 longish days, which seemed wise at the time.  I just didn't realise at the end of the first longish day was the climb up and down Roseberry Topping!

I had dinner tonight at the pub as it is the only place in the village.  It is trying to be a bit of gastro pub but isn't really managing it.  I started with soup of the day which I had been told was roasted red capsicum, although I heard another waitress saying it was roasted tomato.  In any case, it was red and tasted mildy spicy as if it had some chilli in it but nothing much else.  It came with one of those part-cooked bake at home rolls which hadn't been baked enough and was a bit doughy.  For main I had roast pork fillet which was described as coming with black pudding mash, green beans and a silky cider sauce.  It was a pork fillet and the mashed potatoes did include bits of black pudding.  However, the "green beans" turned out to be strips of zucchini and I don't believe any cider went anywhere near the sauce.  The G&T was good so I've rated the food as Harmless but Dull is probably a more accurate rating.

While I was having dinner a man came in with a young standard poodle called Rosie.  She was about 6 months old and very excitable.  She barked at anyone new she spotted, she definitely barked at any other dog and sometimes she just barked because she wanted to.  Over the course of the evening various other people came in with a spaniel, a fluffy little terrier thing, the cutest little dachshund and a very elegant hound that was too superior to notice other people.  This set Rosie off each time.  Her owner would fuss over her, the new dog people would fuss over her, she would be given doggy treats and peace would reign - for about 10 minutes.  At one point Rosie's owner even let her drink some of his wine out of his glass in the hope she would quieten down.  It didn't work.